what would have happened had fury gave klitschko his rematch?

Taking nothing away from Fury’s win over Wlad where he did everything he needed to get the win, he is one of the most overhyped and overrated HW champs to lace up a pair of gloves. Fury will never be etched in history as an ATG.

 

Fury beats any version of Wlad, he’s just the more skilled boxer and Wlad doesn’t have a size advantage against him. The jab/grab Wlad employed under Steward would never work on Fury, to have any chance he has to throw caution to the wind which leaves him too vulnerable against a good counterpuncher like Fury.

If he beats Wilder in the rematch and then Joshua he’s a lock.

 

I thought Wlad would win the rematch he finally let his hands go in final round and had Fury in a little trouble. But Wlad was in steep decline he would need to brawl - if he still had Steward he would win but i’m Not sure at this point he would. He looked bad against Jennings, and Fury, he looked much better for Joshua but he had long rest for that fight and it was better style fight for him. Prime Wlad beats Fury and Joshua.
Fury ducked the rematch that much is certain. He wanted no part of it but I think based on style and Wlad’s age he would of had good shot to win again.

 

They effectively pulled Fury out because he went off the rails and hadn't trained properly, there's a story of him letting Helenius tee off on him in the sparring and then headbutting the ring post. So that speaks for itself. He was in self-destruct mode and had a good chance losing. Though once in the ring if he'd brawled you never know what would have happened because he is a good counter puncher.

You can't really say Fury ducked Wlad at this point, it's absurd. He went into the lion's den the first time. And he's proven by the Wilder fight he will step up to dangerous challenges. So let's put that to bed. The guy is mentally unstable and this is what sabotaged the second fight where he would have been favourite. If he'd come back and only fought bums, you'd have a better case he was a fluke and a 'ducker'.

The question is, if he had trained like he had for the Wilder fight, what then? Probably he wins on points again. Klitschko was surprised by how quick Fury was in there, his defence and engine. If you listen to the post fight, he was waiting for Fury to gas so he could line him up but it didn't really happen. Klitschkos are overconfident and underestimated how good Fury was.

As Fury said in the second face-off, why didn't you let your hands go when you knew you were losing? Wlad answers that he chose to lose. Fury exposes the fallacy of Wlad not letting his hands go out of choice. Wlad couldn't find the target with his set up jab, it's quite simple. He was worried about being countered because Fury hits harder than people pretend.

Wlad had never faced anyone like Fury. The last opponent with any speed was Haye and he was five inches shorter and 25lbs lighter. Wlad was always either the bigger guy or the faster big man, and this time he was neither.

'Letting his hands go' isn't a magic solution. Look how much trouble Wilder had letting his hands go all fight. Wilder has very fast hands, whatever you think of his technique. He has faster hands than old Wlad. If Wlad let his hands go just for the sake of it in the second fight, he would be at risk of gassing and being countered. That's why he didn't do this in the first fight. The argument that the AJ fight proved he was ready to 'let his hands go again' is false because AJ is nowhere near as elusive as Fury.

I think it's true this loss hurt K more than the AJ one because Fury is the only guy to have outboxed him. Wlad knows he was moments away from beating AJ and actually outboxing him. But the Fury loss kills him and that's why he gives Tyson no credit, because Wlad is ultimately a passive aggressive metrosexual liberal shemale in the body of a 6'5 super soldier. Weird combination. To prove how much this hurt him, watch the moment when Fury mocks him for being beaten by a fat man and gets his belly out. Wlad looks physically ill with self-loathing at this instant, probably went home and cut himself like an emo.

 

Klitschko doesn't **** around this time and knocks Fury out early.

 

Given the Wlad who showed up for AJ, when he had nothing to lose, Idon't think so.

 

A violent and aggressive Wlad beats the daylights out of Fury in the rematch. Who knows we might still get to see it

 

It would have been a close fight again.

 

Wlad would have knocked Fury out a second time around.

Fury didnt fancy it and was convinced he would lose the rematch.

 

Fury would still find a way to nullify Wlad. He was quicker and bigger than that version.

 

Fury would win by shutout this time instead of winning 11 rounds like he did in the first fight.

 

In the first Fury fight Wlad didn't have any reflexes left and his stamina was gone. That's why he only started throwing in the last round. Fit Fury would have beaten him again.

 

If he had faced the same type of Fury as the first fight he would have got beaten in the same fashion, maybe worse. Very rarely in history have fighters who've been comprehensively outboxed ended up doing better in a rematch, and in fact frequently ended up doing quite a bit worse. A fighter who knows they can get into your head and manipulate you to their will is very hard to beat, and Wlad at that stage was too old and set in his ways to be able to have made the necessary adjustments to cope with Fury's unorthodox style and brilliant mind games.

It's all well and good for couch potato fans to say all Wlad would have needed to do was throw more punches, but that just highlights their inability to understand what actually went on in that fight, or why it'd have been far more than a routine task to incorporate in a rematch. And whatever changes Wlad might have thought to incorporate from what he learned in the ring with Fury would have been nothing compared to the wealth of experience Fury got in exchange, and more importantly would have been able to draw upon on the night. Wlad was never a fighter who showed the ability to just adapt on the fly the way Fury did. Everything needed to be planned for and strictly practised day in day out for execution on the night. It's why he was so consistent in his performances over the years, but also why he completely fell apart against Fury.

His only bet, really, was to hope that Fury had turned out completely out of sorts and fat as a pig. Unfortunately that was a very real possibility at that point, which is why I can't blame Fury for not taking on the rematch.

 

I favor a fit Fury anytime against an old Wlad. Before their fight I actually thought that Wlad was gonna get to him and end it at some point. But then I remember watching their public workouts and is struck me how much faster and more elusive Fury looked - not even taking his height, reach and range advantages into account.

I go with Fury.

It's a shame prime Wlad never had the oppurtunity to really prove his true ceiling though.

 

I don't think it was necessarily his diminishing reflexes or stamina that prevented him from throwing hard leather, else how do you explain his performance in the Joshua fight a year later?

Rather, I think it was more a case of never being given the opportunity to get mentally set to punch. Wlad was a perfect orthodox fighter who was schooled throughout his career never to throw power shots without setting them up first with his jab. By doing this he was able to soften up, break down and measure his opponents to the point where he could throw his power shots and be sure to not only land them with maximum impact but with minimum danger of return fire.

Fury understood this perfectly, which is why he was able to shut Wlad's offence down by taking away his jab. By not allowing Wlad to get set or establish a rhythm he did not allow him the mental comfort to throw his more potent shots. Wlad actually did try to throw a bit of caution to the wind and just wing in some right hands and left hooks at times, but without the timing, distance and softening up he was usually able to get by constant probing and worrying with his jab his shots were easily read and simply served to open him up to counter shots.

He did a similar thing in the Joshua fight, but Joshua being a slower and less cerebral boxer, was caught by them and hurt. Joshua essentially won that fight by being the bigger, stronger and fresher man, weathering Wlad's best shots and landing harder ones in exchange. Fury won his fight by preventing Wlad from throwing in the first place.